# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1908_S6 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 6 The Lutheran Pioneer. Savior, Be Thou Nigh! Savior, be Thou nigh, When in grief we sigh; When our life seems dark and dreary, When our hearts grow faint and weary. Grant that we may then Thy sweet solace ken. Helper, firm and strong, Lead us safely on! When dark clouds soar threat’ning o’er us, Let despair not overpower us; Let Thy mighty arm Shield us from all harm. When our toils are o'er, Open Thou the door, Leading, after pain and sadness, To the realms of heavenly gladness. Lord, our Savior, come, Lead us to that home! J. MUELLER. ——--—e+- God’s Sparrows. A Christian woman was visiting among the poor in London one cold winter’s day. She was trying to open the door of a third-story room, in a wretched- looking home, when she heard a little voice inside say, “Pull the string up high — pull the string up high!” She looked up and saw a string; she pulled it, when it lifted the latch, and the door opened into a room where she found two little half-naked chil- dren, all alone. They looked cold and hungry. “Do you take care of yourselves, little ones?” said the woman. : _ “No ma’am, God takes care of us,” replied the elder of the children. “You have no fire-on this cold day. not very cold?” “Qh! when we are very cold, we creep under the quilt, and I put my arms round Tommy, and T'ommy puts his arms round me, and we say, ‘Now I lay me,’ and then we get warm,” said the little girl. “And what do you have to eat, pray?” asked the visitor. ‘ _ “When granny comes home she brings us some- thing. Granny says we are God’s sparrows, and He has enough for us; and so we say, ‘Our Father,’ “and “daily bread, every day. God is our Father.” Tears came into the eyes of the woman. She Are you had sometimes felt afraid that she might be starved ; but’ these two little “sparrows,” perched alone in _ that cold upper room, taught her a sweet lesson of trust in the power of God which she felt that she could not soon forget. — God’s Providence. The Rey. Dr. Guthrie, the well-known Scottish minister, one morning felt a strong conviction that he must visit an old and helpless woman of his flock whose daughter was obliged to leave her alone all day while she earned their daily food in a flax mill. The old woman was paralyzed and unable to move hand or foot, yet she was a trusting and uncém- plaining child of God, and her sweet patience had taught the pastor many a lesson. He could not understand the longing he had to go and see the poor woman on this particular morn- ing. It was not his regular time for visiting her, and other duties claimed his attention. But he started on his long walk to the -woman’s humble dwelling. On his way down to the lonely dell he met a friend with whom he had important business, but in the midst of their talk he broke off suddenly as if he had to hurry on. He did hurry on, and as he opened the door of the little house, he found that the fire on the hearth had toppled down in a burning mass and was flam- ing at the very feet of the poor, helpless woman, who in another moment would have been on fire. Her eyes were lifted toward heaven as if in prayer, and after the flames were put out, she said brokenly, “I knew the Lord would send somebody.” God’s children have an almighty Father in heaven of whom we confess: “He defends me against all danger, and guards and protects me from all evil’ Of Him Luther sings: “He cares for us by day and night, All things are governed by His might.” And Paul Gerhardt sings: “For means it fails Thee never, Thou always find’st a way.” Luther a Man of Prayer. Melanchthon, a friend and colaborer of Luther, says: “Often have I myself gone to him unawares and found him dissolved in tears and prayers for the Church of Christ. He devoted a certain por- tion of almost every day to the solemn reading of some of the Psalms of David, with which he mingled his own supplications amid sighs and tears.” Our faith clings to the Word alone, and not to what it sees or feels. — Luther.